Over the last couple of days this post has been doing the rounds in the various journalism and media Facebook groups, and deserves a wider audience. I think we can expect another wave of attacks on the concept of public broadcasting over the next year as our government looks for ways to extricate itself from that annoying task of governance: it would be great if the debate was informed by more voices like this.
“What the Murdoch model demonstrated was that facts and truth could be replaced by ideology, with viewership and revenue going up. Simply put, you can tell less truth and make more money. When you have to balance the interests of your shareholders against the interests of the viewers you supposedly serve, the firewall between the boardroom and the newsroom becomes a very important bulwark indeed.”